OELRICHS, [Natalie] Lily (Later Mrs Peter Martin; Later Duchess of Mecklenburg)

Mr and Mrs Peter Martin in 1901.

Miss [Natalie] Lily Oelrichs was the daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Charles M. Oelrichs, and therefore the niece of Hermann Oelrichs of Rosecliff, Newport, Rhode Island, as well as niece of Mrs. Theodore Havemeyer. She was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, October 12, 1880 and married Peter D. Martin of San Francisco on July 24, 1902 at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, Newport. She had two boys, Scott (who dissipated himself and died aged 29) and Charles. Charles Martin married in 1927 Caroline Madison to whom Muller-Ury presented a still-life (?) that same year when she visited him in San Marino. Peter Martin died in Santa Barbara in 1915, and later that year Lily Oelrichs Martin married Duke Heinrich-Borwin zu Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1885-1942), but they were divorced in 1921. She died in San Francisco on February 23, 1931, having cut off her surviving son and bequeathed most of her property to her parents.

Lily Oelrichs Martin in 1903.

Painted in 1900. The critic of the Post, Denver, Colorado, January 20, 1901 wrote as follows: ‘On entering the gallery the eye is at once caught by the striking full-length, life-size oil painting of Miss Oelrichs, probably the tallest, fairest young woman in society, as she is about six feet in height, has golden hair and the richest brown eyes, combined with an ideal complexion. She is represented in a standing position, dressed in a rich black diaphanous décolleté gown, wearing a large black hat. The whole effect is extremely artistic and pleasing.’

The brown sepia photograph in the artist’s papers bears the stamp of Ferd Stark Co.